The Drum Corps International World Championships, Aug. 5-10, 2013, will mark a week-long celebration of the world’s most elite marching music ensembles. Featuring a high level of performance excellence coupled with an intense competitive spirit, more than 35 drum and bugle corps filled with dedicated young performers will take the field throughout the week, creating unparalleled excitement as they vie for the World Championship title.But the World Championships are more than competition and placements. Thousands of drum corps alums, family members and fans will travel to share in the excitement and view the excellence presented on the field during this year's Finals Week, before another summer season is written into the history books.The week kicks off in Michigan City, Ind., with the Open Class Prelims and Finals Monday and Tuesday Aug. 5 and 6. Events will then move to Indianapolis, beginning with the Individual & Ensemble Championship and Kickoff Party and Hall of Fame Induction on Wednesday, Aug. 7, before the action moves into Lucas Oil Stadium Aug. 8-10 for three incredible days of competition.

To highlight this special event, the band program will posting several stories, videos, and special announcements about DCI.

The Annual Bottle Drive is fast approaching! It is Saturday, Aug. 3rd! Please contact Kelly Wells 810-240-0585 or kel523@comcast.net if you are willing to be a neighborhood captain! We need parents to volunteer to drive students to neighborhoods for collection of bottles. We are hoping to visit several neighborhoods! Some of them are: Indian Hill, Warwick, Maplewood Meadows, Williamsburg Farms.

Others are great if you are willing! Look soon for slots to be added to Charms for actual sign-up of parents and students!! Thanks so much for your help! I’m sure it will be a great success!

Please remember, our annual Marching Band Family Picnic is TONIGHT, from 6-9pm at Bicentennial Park in the Large Pavillion. The Boosters will not be grilling this year. However, the grill is still available if anyone is interested in starting a charcoal fire! Parents, if you are scheduled to be an overnight chaperone at Band Camp and have not filed a background check with GB Schools, we will have the needed paperwork at the picnic. Please bring your driver’s license. If you have already filed the necessary paperwork for another event no new information will be necessary! We look forward to seeing everyone at the picnic!!

This is a long read, but well worth it. The Case For Why Your Dues For Band, Drum Corps, and Winter Guard Are Worth Every Dime

So after a less than pleasant day at work, I was driving home thinking about the nice getting home after the conclusion of my very aggressive krav maga class, where I would be able to basically beat the heck out of my day and then put it to bed. I had a disagreement with a colleague who has difficulty thinking through the multiple alternatives to a problem. It reminded me of a situation years before where a colleague demonstrated that their critical thinking skills exist in a world based on ego and self-esteem. As this person, a friend, a long time member of the team was told that her suggestions for a solution lacked insight, she became defensive and shut down. Later in the day she resorted to middle school tactics and went and "tattled," thus making an already uncomfortable situation, a situation now based on lack of trust.

While thinking about my day, my mind for some reason drifted to my years of color guard. I was lucky to have been zoned for a high school with a great marching band. Almost everything I know and everything I believe, in terms of how I treat people, how I handle problems, and my ability to creatively manage a tough situation comes from that marching band. In my career as a performer, I was lucky to get to play an instrument, spin a flag, get hit in the face with a rifle, and have arms bruised by the blade of a Spanish Sabre. I performed at BOA nationals (when it was MBA), the infamous Tennessee Contest of Champions, Drum Corps International World Championships, and the Winter Guard World Championships. The build up to those competitions and the lessons learned, have stayed with me well into my 40's and no amount of money spent in college or in professional classes, will ever match what I learned in my years as a national competitor. My very core comes from years spent with band directors and guard instructors who wouldn't give up on me and demanded that I demand more from myself.

So, if you are a parent or young person wondering if the money is worth it, please know that it is. Every dime. Every tear. Every bruise. Every visit to the emergency room. Every push up. Every late night on a football field. Every disagreement. Every lap ran around the track. It's all worth it and let me give the young people out there, the current performers of our activity 10 reasons why.

1. Because early is on time and on time is late! Enough said.

2. Because your band director is too busy to deal with your petty arguments with your co-performers. Work it out, because it's only band camp and it's going to be a long season if you don't. In the stress and pain of any competitive season, learning to work with others will be your saving grace. This is life and in life you will have disagreements and whining to the boss should not be your first option.

3. Because your actions impact not just you, but the team. If you are successful, then they are successful. If you give up and quit, then those who did not give up and quit are still impacted by your selfish actions. There are fewer people who can work as a team than you will ever know. It's a skill not many have. Pageantry will teach it to you. There is no doubt about that.

4. Because your actions have consequences. If you don't practice there are consequences, If you are late there are consequences. If you don't listen to instructions there are consequences. If you gossip there are consequences. If you try to be an individual and not a team player then, there...are...consequences. In the workplace there are consequences for missing deadlines, being late, having an anger outburst, or just for having a bad day and those consequences could be career killers. Learn this lesson while you are young.

5. Because you don't get to choose who you will do that flag exchange with. The person marching next to you or throwing a flag at your head might just be the most uncoordinated person next to a fish trying to climb a tree. Learn to work with them and get over it. This isn't about you and the fact that you can do something better than someone else. It's about your ability to find a gem in the most awkward person.

6. Because you might not like your staff. Your staff might be mean. They may lack experience. They might lack talent. Your staff may just be the most respected and talented group of people ever assembled in a gym and they still might screw it all up. Here's the thing, though. You are stuck with them and they are stuck with you. Learn now how to manage situations that could lead to ultimate failure and learn to work through that failure without blame. Learn to not quit when things get hard.

7. Because the team outweighs the individual always and there is no one who ever gets their own individual score. You aren't the soloist. You aren't the 50 yard line diva. You aren't the drum major. You aren't the flute player who only gets to play one note the entire phrase. You aren't just the freshman flag on the end of the line who nobody sees. You are part of an ensemble and everyone matters and everyone is seen. Everyone has a voice in the chorus and sometimes being in the back of the line is just as important as being the lead dog and most of the time...it will teach you more.

8. Because you won't win every competition you go to. You might even get last place. You might be 25 points out of first place. Your team might even get unfairly judged or an error on the judges score sheet will keep your team from getting a trophy. This is life and life is often unfair, without explanation and without an apology.

9. Because performing in front of a crowd is one of the hardest things you will ever do. You will panic. You will be so nervous you might throw up. You might screw it up so bad you set your equipment up on the wrong side of the floor. You might miss the note or drop the rifle. These shows will teach you resilience. They will teach you how to recover and keep going. This skill in life is more important than anything. Learn the word. RESILIENCE! Say it again. RESILIENCE! You are going to need it and there is no better place to learn it than marching band, winter guard, or drum corps.

10. Friendship. When you are ready to attend your 25 year class reunion it won't be the people you graduated with that you will want to see the most. It will be the people who stood next to you for an entire season while you learned to throw a quad, that you will want to see the most. It will be the person who sat next to you on the bus, who comforted you after you messed up that one note during your solo. It will be that person who said to you that the staff was crazy when they yelled at you for missing your drill set. The friends you make while preparing for those competitions are lifetime friends. You will long for them. You will miss them and nothing will replace them. There is no other time in life that I can think of when life long friends are made throughout the course of struggle and defeat.

When your band director or staff uses the phrase, "This is a life lesson," then listen. They are right. Life is hard. It's very hard, but the hard comes with rewards. Tom Hanks said it best in the movie, "A League of Their Own," when he uttered the very famous line, "It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great." The reward is the beauty that comes from starting and finishing something that you never thought you could. When working on a tough project, I often know within minutes who has never had a coach tell them they are wrong or played on a team where their every move depended on their preparation and actions and although not a pure science, they tend to lack the ability to listen and the ability to use critical thought. Years back, I was working on a project at work that wasn't going well. There were about 10 people on the team. Most of the team either got lazy or gave up. Some wanted to take credit for the work once it was done. Some wanted to only critique the work, without offering their sweat in the process of the work. I found that there was this one man who was working as hard as me. He was creative and critically thought through all processes of the project. One day while the two of us were re-thinking the project, he made a comment that made me know that I was in the presence of a "family member." He said, "You know...sometimes all you can do is shine a turd." I laughed and asked him if he had ever participated in marching band, as that was a phrase often used by staff members. He told me he had not just participated in marching band, but drum corps also. Needless to say, the rest of the day we didn't really work, but talked about drum corps. Furthermore, it was two pageantry people who finished the project and made it shine like gold.

CONGRATULATIONS to all of those who took part in Week 4 Summer Practice Challenge! This week has been the BEST week for most sections. The individual winner for the most minutes practiced was KRISTEN POLLISTER. With 486 AVERAGE minutes, and the section with the most minutes practiced was the COLOR GUARD. With 75% of members participating, and the section with the most participation was the FLUTES. Congratulations! Kristen will participate in the pizza party, and the Flutes will be first in line for all meals on Thursday. TODATE ... the band has practiced a total of 39, 051 minutes. That is AWESOME! We are now on the FINAL Week of the challenge. REMEMBER that sectional work can be counted in the challenge so be sure to record those minutes! To see the details of the result ... CLICK HERE.

Marching Band Family Picnic!!Please remember to mark your calendar for our annual Marching Band Family Picnic! It will be on Monday, July 29 from 6-9pm at Bicentennial Park in the Large Pavillion. The Boosters will not be grilling this year. However, the grill is still available if anyone is interested in starting a charcoal fire! Parents, if you are scheduled to be an overnight chaperone at Band Camp and have not filed a background check with GB Schools, we will have the needed paperwork at the picnic. Please bring your driver’s license. If you have already filed the necessary paperwork for another event no new information will be necessary! We look forward to seeing everyone at the picnic!!

Marching Band Bottle Drive!!The Annual Bottle Drive is fast approaching! It is Saturday, Aug. 3rd! Please contact Kelly Wells 810-240-0585 or kel523@comcast.net if you are willing to be a neighborhood captain! We need parents to volunteer to drive students to neighborhoods for collection of bottles. We are hoping to visit several neighborhoods! Some of them are: Indian Hill, Warwick, Maplewood Meadows, Williamsburg Farms.Others are great if you are willing! Look soon for slots to be added to Charms for actual sign-up of parents and students!! Thanks so much for your help! I’m sure it will be a great success!

Chaperoning at Band Camp!If you haven’t already, please visit the Charms Calendar and sign up to be a Chaperone at Band Camp! Several times are still available! This is a lot of fun to see the kids make progress and meet new friends! Also a great way to earn volunteer credit toward your band camp fees!! Thanks everyone!!

Please be sure to update your Kroger RewardsOur latest quarterly check from Kroger was $355.07! Thank you to everyone who has signed up for Kroger Rewards! What an easy fundraiser! Please remember to update your rewards info if you have not already done so. Kroger requires all members to update rewards each year on or after April 1st.

Just go to , https://customer.kroger.com/login.aspx?EID=EDC_2012_ViewAccount and either create an account or login if you already have an account. Click on community, then click on “Kroger Community Rewards” over on the left. Just follow their instructions. Our Organization # is 90769, Grand Blanc High School Band Dept. Thanks again!

Band Camp is fast approaching. It is time for you to start planning for seniors night. This is your night, and the seniors do all the planning for this event. You must get everything approved with the directors. If you are needing help from your parents, you need to let them know in a timely manner.

To start your conversation, I have added a Senior Night post to the bandpage FORUM. Start communicating ideas for this night.

DCI World Championship Prelims: Big, Loud & Live 10Thursday, August 8 • 6:30 p.m. ETCelebrating its 10th anniversary in 2013, Drum Corps International's Big, Loud & Live will once again feature performances from the DCI World Championship Prelims. The event will be broadcast via satellite from Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis to cinemas nationwide.“Embarking on its 10th year, we’re extremely proud that Big, Loud & Live continues to evolve in its pioneering role on National Cinemedia’s Digital Broadcast Network,” Acheson said. “We’re very pleased to be able to share the evening with tens of thousands of fans across the country, many of whom have made this into an annual tradition when they’re not able to travel to the World Championships in person. The only thing better is to be there to see and hear it live!”Theater attendance has steadily risen since the first Big, Loud & Live program debuted in 2004. Appearing in just 44 theaters in its first year, the event spread into a record-setting 609 theaters across 47 states in 2012. More than 43,000 attended last summer’s cinema event.Big, Loud & Live 10 will feature the performances of the top 15 corps at the Prelims, along with highlights of groups that performed earlier in the day.Additional information including a complete list of participating movie theaters will be released in the coming months at FathomEvents.com.

Only three summer sectionals remain before the start of pre-camp. We are getting closer and closer to band camp and the start of the 2013 season. Rehearsal tomorrow will be a MUSIC ONLY rehearsal, as we are trying to stay out of the HEAT! Please remember that the more work that we get done in the summer, the further along we will be when we get to band camp. Summer sectionals are very important, and everyone that is in town, is expect to attend. See you all tomorrow at your assigned time!

The Annual Bottle Drive is fast approaching! It is Saturday, Aug. 3rd! Please contact Kelly Wells 810-240-0585 or kel523@comcast.net if you are willing to be a neighborhood captain! We need parents to volunteer to drive students to neighborhoods for collection of bottles. We are hoping to visit several neighborhoods! Some of them are: Indian Hill, Warwick, Maplewood Meadows, Williamsburg Farms.Others are great if you are willing! Look soon for slots to be added to Charms for actual sign-up of parents and students!! Thanks so much for your help! I’m sure it will be a great success!

Please remember to mark your calendar for our annual Marching Band Family Picnic! It will be on Monday, July 29 from 6-9pm at Bicentennial Park in the Large Pavillion. The Boosters will not be grilling this year. However, the grill is still available if anyone is interested in starting a charcoal fire! Parents, if you are scheduled to be an overnight chaperone at Band Camp and have not filed a background check with GB Schools, we will have the needed paperwork at the picnic. Please bring your driver’s license. If you have already filed the necessary paperwork for another event no new information will be necessary! We look forward to seeing everyone at the picnic!!

If you haven’t already, please visit the Charms Calendar and sign up to be a Chaperone at Band Camp! Several times are still available! This is a lot of fun to see the kids make progress and meet new friends! Also a great way to earn volunteer credit toward your band camp fees!! Thanks everyone!!

Our latest quarterly check from Kroger was $355.07! Thank you to everyone who has signed up for Kroger Rewards! What an easy fundraiser! Please remember to update your rewards info if you have not already done so. Kroger requires all members to update rewards each year on or after April 1st.

Just go to , https://customer.kroger.com/login.aspx?EID=EDC_2012_ViewAccount and either create an account or login if you already have an account. Click on community, then click on “Kroger Community Rewards” over on the left. Just follow their instructions. Our Organization # is 90769, Grand Blanc High School Band Dept. Thanks again!

CONGRATULATIONS to all of those who took part in Week 3 Summer Practice Challenge! The individual winner for the most minutes practiced was ALLYN PIERSON. The section with the most minutes practiced AND the most participation was the Pit. Week 3 Practice Challenge was a clean sweep for the pit! Congratulations! Allyn will participate in the pizza party, and the Battery will be first in line for all meals on Wedneday. We are now on Week 4 of the challenge, so all the scores start over! REMEMBER that sectional work can be counted in the challenge so be sure to record those minutes! To see the details of the result ... CLICK HERE.

We hope that you had a GREAT 4th of July! Summer Sectional Rehearsal starts back up tomorrow. Please remember that you are expected to attend summer sectionals unless you fill out an absence request form. Also, make sure that you bring WATER to every rehearsal. Tomorrow we will do an hour of marching, and an hour of music. You will also get a sneak peek of the drill that is written for the first three piece. See you all tomorrow!

CONGRATULATIONS to all of those who took part in Week 2 Summer Practice Challenge! The individual winner for the most minutes practiced was THOMAS VOLKER. The section with the most minutes practiced was the BATTERY. There was a three way time for the sections with the most participation. Congratulations to the TUBAS and FLUTES! Thomas will participate in the pizza party, and the Battery will be first in line for all meals on TUESDAY. We are now on Week 3 of the challenge, so all the scores start over! REMEMBER that sectional work can be counted in the challenge so be sure to record those minutes! To see the details of the result ... CLICK HERE.

There has been a HUGE leaderboard change in our Summer Practice Challenge! To see the break-down of all sections CLICK HERE. You only have a few more hours before week 2 comes to an end. LOG IN THOSE MINUTES!

Over 5000 pages visited on the GBHS Band Website! What does that mean to you? NOTHING! And it's really is not that exciting! What it does mean is that we are reaching one of our goals. We want to keep our members, families and friends informed of all the programs activities. (And

Check out this video of the Legends Drumline. Three Grand Blanc Students are marching with Legends this summer. Snare drummers Michael Hamilton (second in from left side of line) and Khalid Malik (far right end of line). Tenor drummer Jacob Rechsteiner (left end of line). We hope you are having a great summer!